Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 12 2023

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

Under that seasonal contract, it will deliver second vessel is a 150,900-cubic metre ship
regasified LNG during the winter season, which known as the Exemplar. It is currently anchored
runs from June to August, in Argentina. As such, at the Inkoo terminal in Finland under a charter
the German charter will be suspended tem- with the state-owned natural gas transmission
porarily while the FSRU is deployed to Bahia grid operator, Gasgrid.
Blanca. After Argentina’s winter season, the Argentina is a gas producer, but it relies on
Excelsior will resume its original charter with imports – LNG cargoes delivered by sea, as well
the German government. as overland pipeline shipments from Bolivia –
As of press time, the terms of the contract to cover domestic demand. In the long term, it
had not been made public. has aspirations of becoming a net exporter. This
According to automatic identification system goal hinges on attracting more investment to
(AIS) data, the Excelsior was sailing offshore the Vaca Muerta shale formation, which con-
Cadiz, Spain as of March 28. tains large amounts of unconventional gas, and
Excelerate will have two of the FSRUs in its to the infrastructure projects needed to connect
10-unit fleet deployed in Europe this year. The upstream assets to the South Atlantic coast. ™

ECUADOR
Energy minister urges Ecuador to cut oil

production target by 40,000 bpd in 2023

ECUADOR’S Energy Minister Fernando San- offshore platform at the Amistad field, further
tos has said that the country ought to reduce its affecting production.
crude oil production target by 40,000 barrels Some of the protests are being carried out
per day (bpd), or about 8%, due to protests, civil by indigenous communities living near Blocks
unrest, natural disasters and other disruptions. 16-67, 43-ITT, and 61. Members of these com-
Santos told reporters last week that Ecuador munities in Orellana Province have staged a
should bring its production target down from number of demonstrations in recent months,
the original goal of 520,000 bpd included in the and these events have “impeded the normal
2023 budget. The country has not achieved that functioning of hydrocarbon activities, drasti-
level since the start of the year, even though the cally affecting production [and] state income
first quarter is nearly over, he stated. “We have and above all putting personnel at risk,” Petro-
been at 480,000 [bpd], without taking into ecuador said in a statement. The NOC has
account the events, the natural disasters and requested help from the armed forces to protect
social problems,” he commented. its installations, and the government is evaluat-
Under the circumstances, he remarked, the ing potential threats.
country needs to be realistic and cut its output Last year, Petroecuador lost nearly 2mn bar-
target back to around 480,000-490,000 bpd for rels of oil production after more than two weeks
this year. of sustained protests by indigenous groups. ™
The minister was speaking to reporters fol-
lowing the national oil company (NOC) Petro-
ecuador’s declaration of force majeure at three
oil-bearing sites on March 21, bringing the total
number of blocks where operations have been
halted up to four. The sites that are now offline
or working below capacity include Blocks 12,
16-67, 43-ITT and 61. Block 12 usually yields
around 29,200 bpd of oil but is now idle; the
other three saw output drop from 142,000 bpd
on March 19 to 122,500 bpd on March 20.
As of March 20, Petroecuador was extracting
just 362,000 bpd of oil.
The NOC took this step a few days after
members of indigenous communities began
staging protests, alleging that Petroecuador had
not fulfilled pledges to provide economic aid
and basic services. The demonstrations were
quickly followed by an earthquake that hit an Santos, shown on March 21 (Photo: Twitter/@RecNaturalesEC)

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